Given its convenience to the Phoenix Park, good schools, transport links to Dublin city centre and a host of other amenities, the Navan Road area of Dublin 7 is enduringly popular. Asking prices for three-bed semi-detached houses in Dublin city north are up about 17.5 per cent year on year, however relatively affordable houses are still to be found in this locale.
1 Ashington Rise, Navan Road, Dublin 7
€375,000, Flynn & Associates, 83sq m (893sq ft)
Located a few minutes in from the Navan Road, number 1 is an end-of-terrace house with an unusually wide site.
Approached through a set of metal gates, the house instantly stands out from its neighbours with its cobblelock driveway, custom railings and well-stocked garden. The driveway accommodates one or two cars but could be opened up.
The property is average-sized, with a livingroom to the front and a kitchen/diner to the rear, opening out to the rear garden. The south-facing garden is far larger than that of neighbouring houses due to the site’s width and ensures the kitchen, and any other rooms that may be added to the rear, will be bright.
Upstairs are three bedrooms, each with fitted wardrobes, and a family bathroom. While this layout may suit buyers, other similar houses in the Ashington area have exploited the potential of their corner sites by adding two-storey extensions to the side, and those interested in number 1 may consider similar plans should funds allow.
Such an extension could provide a large master bedroom with en-suite bathroom upstairs and additional living space downstairs, ideal for a separate playroom or study.
In 2008, around the beginning of the recession, a semi-detached house across the street with a standard-sized east-facing garden sold for €460,000. More recently, an identical house sold last month for €343,500 and three other houses sold for about the same price last year. Number 92 Ashington Rise, a better decorated house with a far smaller garden, is also for sale for €375,000.
7 Belleville, Navan Road, Dublin 7
€365,000, Flynn & Associates, 116sq m (1,248sq ft)
Belleville is a Eugene Larkin development dating from 1998, bounded by the Navan Road to the north and Phoenix Park to the south. Number 7 has fantastic transport links to Dublin city and beyond, with regular buses into the city passing on the Navan Road, and Ashtown train station is also less than 10 minutes’ walk away.
The end-of-terrace house faces the creeper-clad stone walls of Phoenix Park. The house has no private front garden, opening straight out on to a footpath. One designated parking space accompanies the house and the estate has ample visitor parking.
The kitchen is located to the front of the house and, while limited in size, there is plenty of room in the livingroom for a full dining table. This room opens out to the good-sized north-facing rear garden. There is a utility and guest toilet also at ground floor level.
Upstairs are three double bedrooms (one en-suite), one single bedroom and a family bathroom spread over first floor and attic level. All houses in the estate were built with bedrooms in the attic and thus this is not a conversion. The house is fitted with double-glazed windows and gas-fired central heating, and holds a respectable C2 BER rating.
In 2013, a neighbouring midterrace similar in size sold for €320,000. The estate has a number of different types of house, and while not many houses of this layout have traded hands in the past 10 years, the larger 145sq m four-bed houses were seeking as much as €800,000 at the height of the property boom, in 2007.
35 Kinvara Park, Navan Road, Dublin 7
€350,000, Flynn & Associates, 121sq m (1,302sq ft)
Situated directly beside the Kinvara Park shops, number 35 is an extended four-bedroom home on a corner site with a large front garden in a mature area. The front garden is laid out mainly in lawn, with ample car parking.
At ground floor is a generous entrance hall, two interconnecting livingrooms and a kitchen/diner. Upstairs are two double bedrooms (one en-suite) and two singles, and a family bathroom. A Stira stairs leads to the partially floored attic.
To the rear of the house is a compact garden, with patio area and north-facing lawned area. Within the rear garden are two sheds with plumbing and electricity.
The house is relatively large in comparison to nearby properties with similar asking prices but at present is a blank canvas of sorts, with exposed floorboards and no furniture, and requires updating throughout.
As this house currently holds a dismal F BER rating, there is clearly scope to make improvements in this respect by adding double-glazed windows and other possibilities such as interior dry lining, which one would not likely pursue if the house was already immaculate.
Last year a number of properties on the street sold, mostly midterraced properties, achieving prices between €278,000 and €340,000.
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